Sports Championships That Are Arguably Tainted

[TMC1982]

Examples:
*The 1919 Reds' World Series win even though it wasn't their fault.

*The Patriots' Super Bowl wins because of the video tape thing

*The Steelers' most recent Super Bowl wins because of steroids and crappy reffing

*The 2002 Lakers' championship because of shady reffing.

 

[Ghostvirus]

Spoiler

Giants/Pats Superbowl. There is a video clearly showing that the clock was tampered giving the Giants time to pull off there "miracle" win. & the fact that they now suck is even more testament to the taint.

 

[Hound55]

1999 Rugby World Cup which saw a bout of food poisoning tear through the All Blacks just before the final.

 

[Hotwire]

Spoiler

Giants/Pats Superbowl. There is a video clearly showing that the clock was tampered giving the Giants time to pull off there "miracle" win. & the fact that they now suck is even more testament to the taint.

Link?

 

[Ghostvirus]

Link?

[YT]FlucdnU1Lbc[/YT]

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

Anything won by the Yankees, Cowboys, Lakers, Duke, USC or other such teams/colleges that bandwagon *****ebags flock to.....

 

[TMC1982]

The 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers - There was a players' strike that year. As a result, Major League Baseball decided to create a special additional playoff round (a precursor to the Division Series) prior to the League Championship Series. Whomever was in first place at the time the strike hit would automatically be the "division winners" of that half. Therefore, whomever finished in first at the end of the second half (post strike) would therefore be the second division winner. The winners of both halves (East and West) would met in the special playoff series that I just mentioned.

The problem with this whole set up is that Cincinnati Reds got royally screwed over. They had the best overall record in Major League Baseball in 1981. But because they didn't finish first in either half (they finished second behind the Dodgers in the first half and second behind the Houston Astros in the second half) they couldn't qualify. As a matter of fact, if you go by total records in the National League for 1981, then the League Championship Series should've been the Reds vs. the St. Louis Cardinals (who also didn't qualify due to this poorly thought out playoff scenario).

 

[Green Lantern]

2004 USC Trojans, due to the Reggie Bush thing, something which has now been rectified. And if they had truly been the 'best team of the century' as ESPN was so fond of proclaiming them, the 2005 Trojans would have gotten theirs taken away too.

 

[Erzengel]

Spoiler

Giants/Pats Superbowl. There is a video clearly showing that the clock was tampered giving the Giants time to pull off there "miracle" win. & the fact that they now suck is even more testament to the taint.

Link?

[YT]FlucdnU1Lbc[/YT]

I always loved this argument because most Patriot fans don't remember that there was still 39 seconds when the Patriots got the ball back. This would just mean that the Patriots would have had even less time to do anything.

 

[Matt]

Bad calls are part of the game. Sometimes you get one in your favor, sometimes you get one that goes against you. It is a part of sports. I find that most people who complain about "tainted championships," are just bitter that their team has not won the title. Truly tainted championships are things such as the Black Sox scandal as it is a case of blatant cheating. Questionable calls are not.

I'd say the most tainted NFL championship of recent years is Super Bowl XLI. Not because of cheating or anything. Just because it was a down year for the AFC (the Patriots had no receivers and were all kinds of injured and still nearly won the AFC championship. The Steelers were plagued by several injuries that year and were dealing with the aftermath of Ben's motorcycle accident, McNair was struggling as age was kicking in for Baltimore, etc) and the Colts opponent in the Super Bowl was easily the worst team to ever win the NFC Championship. Its not tainted, per say, but it was a very lucky year for the Colts.